Context
After hearing that he is pure awareness, Janaka asks Ashtavakra how he can know this witness-consciousness if it cannot be perceived like other objects.
The Dialogue
Janaka: "Master, you say I am the witness of all. But how can I know this witness? When I try to see it, I find only thoughts, sensations, and the effort of seeking itself."
Ashtavakra: "The eye that sees cannot see itself. The fire that illumines all cannot illumine itself as an object. You are asking the witness to step in front of itself and be witnessed. This is impossible."
Janaka: "Then how can I ever know my true nature?"
Ashtavakra: "You already know it! You are not trying to find something hidden. That which is looking through your eyes right now, that which hears these words - this is it. The witness is self-evident. It needs no proof because it is the very basis of all proof."
Janaka: "But I experience myself as this body, as these thoughts..."
Ashtavakra: "You experience thoughts arising in awareness. You experience the body appearing in awareness. But awareness itself neither comes nor goes. Ask yourself: what is aware of the body? What notices thoughts? That which remains constant while all else changes - that formless knowing is what you are."
Janaka: "So the search itself is the obstacle?"
Ashtavakra: "The seeker is what is sought. When you stop running after yourself, you find you were never lost. The witness cannot be witnessed as an object, but it can be recognized as the eternal subject - the unchanging I that precedes every experience."
✨ Key Lesson
The true Self cannot be found as an object because it is the eternal subject - the awareness in which all objects appear.